All Saints' Day.

The contrast of Halloween yesterday and All Saints' Day today inevitably makes me (and I'm sure many others) remember the "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence from Disney's 1940 film Fantasia. I saw it when I was a little kid, and after what was to me then a long movie with dull music and ballerina hippos I was suddenly crapping my pants in terror -- metaphorically crapping, that is. Although it may have been a close-run thing.

I'd love to post the video here, to endanger your own trousers, but Disney jealously guards its clips. It featured this lovable Disney scamp:

AAIIIEEEE

I can tell you, I woke up in a hurry when Chernabog joined the party. In fact, I'm not sure I slept for days.

Nevertheless, I know I took some comfort in the ending of the sequence, where Cherny and the rest of the evil crew are vanquished. And this is where it both confused and enlightened me.

I'd seen plenty of cartoon fights of good vs. evil, and they were real fights -- Underdog vs. Overcat, Popeye vs. Bluto, the Mighty Heroes vs. the Monsterizer. Lots of slugging going on. But there's no slugging going on here; Chernabog and his demons look like an unstoppable force that even the Super Friends would fall before. And yet they are utterly routed by... this?

Ave Maria

I would not understand what that was about for years.

All of which brings us to last night, when an evil jackwipe in a rental truck mowed down dozens and killed eight on a bike path. The New York Times reports that "He jumped out of the vehicle with a pellet gun and a paintball gun in hand, shouted 'Allahu akbar'... and was shot by an officer." They added "It is still not known what motivated the attack," because the New York Times could not find its own ass with both hands and a compass.

Apparently this evil jerk carried those comical weapons in the expectation that the NYPD would send him to his reward. He was not killed by police, which was either good luck or good shooting or both. You're not going to hell that fast, Chuckles.

This pathetic loser, who had written a letter pledging allegiance to the dying assclowns of ISIS, was no Chernabog, but you can imagine what he would have done if he were.

It brings us back to a question that has always bedeviled decent men and women: What is the response to evil? Fight or be run over? Those who preach nonviolent resistance generally know (even if they won't admit) that it only works on a foe with a conscience, like the United States or Great Britain. It doesn't work on the happy slaughterers of ISIS any more than it would have worked on the organized murderers of Nazi Germany.

It's God that strikes down the monsters in Fantasia; so where is He against creeps who love ISIS? The line of people carrying the light in darkness in Disney's movie would have been run over by this jerk in his rental truck. And this is where we run into the cheese grater of free will again -- for our wills to be truly free, our evil actions must be allowed and the consequences must be reaped. It does not mean that God is not with the victims.

The Church Militant teaches that there is a spiritual battle against evil as well as a physical one, but one must be prepared to fight both. It also teaches that the victory over evil is assured---but has not yet been won.

On this All Saints' Day, let's ask all the saints to pray for us in the battle against evil in this world, and let us be prepared to fight in any way that we are called to do so.

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P.S.: Bear in mind that the church calls anyone who has made it into heaven a saint, and does not award the title but pronounces acknowledgment that the person so-called must have made it to that blessed destination. So if you're convinced that Uncle Al or Uncle Lou has gotten through the pearly gates, I guess you can ask him to put in a good word for us down here as well. We need all the help we can get.